Celebrity Apprentice Season 12: Donald Trump, Tia Carrere, and George Takei on Charity, Façades, and the Art of the Game

On February 29, 2012, NBC held a press conference call for Celebrity Apprentice Season 12 featuring host and executive producer Donald Trump alongside two of the season's 18 contestants: actress and multi-Grammy winner Tia Carrere and actor George Takei. Premier Guide Miami's Daedrian McNaughton was on the call.

I decided all right, the time is limited — I will read it. And I'll read it like a medieval herald. So we scotch-taped all the pages together and made it into a scroll.

The medieval herald moment — Daedrian's question

George, last week when you were on the show and you were being the announcer for the medieval show they kind of presented you as a little bit incompetent about reading, which seems to contradict who you really are. Do you feel that was a fair portrait of you on that show, or do you think that was a little bit misleading about how competent you were?

Well, you know, I'm an actor and we actors when we're in front of an audience don't like to have the script with us. So I tried to get the flow — the very gist of what I'm supposed to do up there. But of course there's that other thing of having to give cues to the people in the light booth. And so when I was kind of improvising along the outlines of the script the people in the booth were finding it difficult to find their cues. So Clay, dear Clay, he made a big thing out of that and he went on and on. Clay tends to be a little bit of a chatterbox critic. And so that got played up a little bit bigger than it really was. I decided all right, the time is limited; we won't have enough time to memorize so I will read it. And I'll read it like a medieval herald. So what we did was we scotch-taped all the pages of the script together and made it into a scroll and made the herald reading off of an ancient scroll.

Charity and the weight of history

The call's most powerful moment came when Takei explained his charity: the Japanese American National Museum, which he has served since its founding and chaired from 2000 to 2004. He described the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II — "simply because we happened to look like the people who bombed Pearl Harbor" — with the measured gravity of someone who has told the story many times and still feels its full weight. "The pillar of our justice system, due process, was totally ignored. Our constitution was violated. And we were put into 10 barbed wire internment camps." He quoted his father's summation after years of discussion: "Both the strength and the weakness of American democracy is in the fact that it's a people's democracy and it can be as great as the people can be but it can be as fallible as people are." Trump, listening, said simply: "That was an amazing story, George, I didn't realize that." Tia Carrere, whose charity is After School All Stars — introduced to her by Arnold Schwarzenegger 18 years earlier — called the internment story "unconscionable."

On façades — and what the show reveals

Both Carrere and Takei spoke at length about the show's most unexpected gift: the stripping away of public personas. "You inevitably get beyond the public persona and the façade that people project," Carrere said. "They get worn down and they get tired and they get grumpy and you really get to see to the core of people." Takei applied it specifically to Victoria Gotti, with whom he shared car rides back to the hotel: "She has that hard façade. She looks like a tough gal which she is. But when you talk with her personally in that very private situation where just the two of you are in the car being driven back to the hotel she's a very interesting person." He also described Paul Teutul Sr. as a revelation: "I had no idea someone who looks like a motorcycle guy could be so successful." The lesson, Takei said, was consistent: "Always keep an open mind, to not read just the surface and get to know the person that you're with. You might find some great rewards."

The Trump family dynamic — and Doral

When asked about the family dynamic of having Ivanka, Donald Jr., and Eric Trump all working on the show, Trump mentioned almost in passing that he had just purchased Doral Country Club in Miami. "We just bought Doral Country Club in Miami, which is a phenomenal piece of land, hundreds of acres. And I have them right now working on that so they work on television but they have to go into the real world also which is for us real estate." Carrere praised the Trump children directly: "I have a soft spot for Donald Junior, he's just a sweetie. You think wow very foreboding presence and powerful man. But he's also raised a really wonderful and bright family." Takei, characteristically, took the longer view: "I kind of mused on what both Donald and Ivanka and Eric are going to do when they're their father's age. You know, what is going to happen with this dynasty."

George Takei's invitation to Trump — on marriage equality

The call's most quietly charged exchange came near the end. After Trump was asked whether NBC prevented him from discussing his political leanings on the show — he said no, but that he chose not to out of appropriateness — Takei seized the moment. "Now that the show is almost over, next time I'm in New York, Mr. Trump, I'd like to take you to Jean-Georges for lunch and maybe we can discuss marriage equality. I'd like to think that you'd be supportive." Trump's response: "Okay. That's a good idea, George. You would be the first guy to take me." Takei confirmed the invitation. Trump accepted. Celebrity Apprentice airs Sundays at 9 p.m. Eastern on NBC.